{"id":197130,"date":"2026-03-25T09:46:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T04:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/?p=197130"},"modified":"2026-03-25T09:46:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T04:46:13","slug":"christian-petitioner-denied-sc-status-over-religious-profession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/2026\/03\/25\/christian-petitioner-denied-sc-status-over-religious-profession.html","title":{"rendered":"Christian petitioner denied SC status over religious profession"},"content":{"rendered":"

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India has ruled that a person loses Scheduled Caste (SC) status upon converting to a religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism, declaring that such a bar is absolute under the law.<\/p>\n

According to Kashmir Media Service, a bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and N. V. Anjaria upheld an earlier judgment of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, stating that no individual professing a religion outside those specified in the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, can claim SC status or related constitutional benefits.<\/p>\n

The court observed that conversion results in an immediate and complete loss of SC recognition, and no statutory protection, reservation, or entitlement can be extended thereafter. It emphasized that a person cannot simultaneously practice another religion and claim SC membership.<\/p>\n

The ruling came while dismissing a petition filed by a pastor, Chinthada Anand, who had challenged the high court\u2019s decision after it quashed charges under the SC\/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in a criminal case. The apex court noted that the petitioner had continued to profess Christianity and function as a pastor, thereby disqualifying him from claiming SC status.<\/p>\n

Legal experts say the verdict reinforces the rigid framework governing caste-based entitlements in India and highlights the limitations faced by converts in accessing constitutional safeguards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Delhi: The Supreme Court of India has ruled that a person loses Scheduled Caste (SC) status upon converting to a religion other than Hinduism, Sikhism or Buddhism, declaring that such a bar is absolute under the law. According to Kashmir Media Service, a bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and N. V. Anjaria upheld …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":169145,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-india"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/assests\/2025\/02\/Christians-Appel.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197131,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197130\/revisions\/197131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmsnews.org\/kms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}